Posted on 07/07/2015 12:56:25 PM PDT by Gamecock
Staples and his friends had been drinking and setting off fireworks Saturday night in a friend's backyard in rural Calais, Maine, when Staples died instantly of a fatal head injury, said Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland.
On Monday officials released new information about the incident.
"He placed the firework in the (mortar) tube upside down," McCausland said. "And rather than being projected upwards, it projected into his skull."
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
It might also depend on how tight a grip he had on the tube when the lifting charged ignited. While the tube would most likely have been driven upward out of his hand regardless of how tight he was holding it, it is possible there was enough resistance to give the charge a reasonably hard launch downward.
>>He most likely had the open end of the mortar pointed at the top of his head (instead of ‘up’).
That seems quite likely. A large diameter mortar might stay on your head like a hat, like that. The flat base plate plate not so much.
I will not do a Disney gig, and I will not do a cruise ship gig.
<><><><<
I have a number of musician friends who swore by cruise ship gigs.
They were young, single and horn dogs.
Years ago I recall an actor who held a starter pistol to his temple and joking with some others pulled the trigger.
The kept him alive on life support until they could harvest his organs.
That video is fake.
The gene pool just got a few mm deeper!
Rather difficult to do an encore, tho.
As the instructor at suicide bomber school said, “Now pay attention! I’m only going to do this once.”
John-Eric Hexum (Voyagers)
libs will do anything to get
attention.
For its complete and unmistakable clarity, that stands as my absolute favorite warning label.
My thinking as well. The same amount of energy in the recoil as in the projectile so it didn’t really matter which direction he had the round in the tube or the tube on his head. Any way you look at it, there was a certain amount of energy, focused by the sides of the tube with equal amounts of energy going up as well as down.
Government will pass a law saying anyone shooting off fireworks must wear an OSHA approved hat. And OSHA inspectors will be out looking for violates during the month of July.
I’m still not sure what this guy did.
Some of the larger "artillery shell" fireworks are single-shot, pre-loaded rigs (as opposed to a reusable tube with a dozen or more "mortar shells"). You light a fuse at the base of the tube, rather than at the mouth.
In this case, the lifting charge fired, propelling the pyrotechnics payload *down* into this drunken kid's skull. If that wasn't instantly fatal... the timed bursting charge, intended to scatter the colorful sparkly stuff at altitude, detonated *inside* his head.
They sure don’t make rocket scientists like they used to.
Did this guy publish any research on global warming?
Yes, that’s what we’ve come to decide is the likely action here. Mortar upside down on head, worn like a hat.
“absentmindedly”
.....so to speak.
I had a relative that worked at disney and asked if I wanted to work there one summer (world)- I thought a character in high scool it would be cool and based on my size I was only elible for like chip or dale - the chipmunks - not the other chips/dales
She sent me the application and I was going to have to sing, dance audition.
I guess it never hit me before that all that was required.
I then figured walking around dancing in a chipmunk outfit in June,July,august in Orlando wasn’t for me.
Not sure I regret not trying it.. I could have always said I was a chipndale dancer. But I can say I thought about it once and get the same weird looks
“Ex-Disney performer placed firework on head upside down before he died, authorities say”
Could be a cause and effect relationship between them, there. Police need to investigate this. Just sayin’.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.